Bitcoin Forum

A big no was the first word that entered my mind after reading the first sentence of this article.

It will certainly be a public service for the community to tell everyone not to back up their private keys to any cloud storage platform service. I do not care how safe and secure they are.

https://vmcdn.ca/f/files/shared/miscellaneous-stock-images/computer-problem-guy-face-stock.jpeg;w=630

Coinbase Wallet users will soon be able to back up their private keys on personal cloud storage platforms Google Drive and Apple’s iCloud. NO.

Read in full https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-wallet-to-feature-private-key-backup-on-google-drive-icloud

Yeah, this is surprising and I don't understand why they go that far. Pretty sure only someone who doesn't understand about private key and its security would be using this feature. Hell this mean hacking Google Drive or iCloud would be so profitable, I wonder how many hackers will try to attack them if this feature really got implemented.

This is not making life easier, instead it makes stealing private key too easy.

Of course, creating backup copies of our private keys in general, and even more so sending them to cloud storage, is extremely dangerous. We should keep private keys only in ourselves, everything else is easy prey for hackers. If possible, we should not even keep secret keys from wallets, even on our personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After my Google account was hacked and some of my coins were stolen, I don’t even copy my secret keys, but I manually rewrite them and also manually insert them to avoid any copying. After that, I don’t have any more problems with private keys.

If anyone is planning to store any sensitive information online if you hear an advertisement about how secure they are, make sure that is leaked or in the hands of another person. What ever secure features it has, the development team will have back end access to all your secure files  :D and as a user there is no way you can monitor all those things or any companies safety practices, so be smart and just take a print out and keep it safe in a locker is the best suggestion rather than risking your investment.

a while back i said Coinbase is a bitcoin bank to one of those silly topics asking whether banks will ever adopt bitcoin. now you can see how they are turning more and more into a bank every day. basically you are giving up control over your money and no longer use bitcoin, instead you use a bank called Coinbase and pay them fees to use your own money. then they not only report your ass to IRS and NSA for every single transaction but also can block your money if they decided to have some fun with you!

Well it's going to be encrypted at least, so there's that lol.


Still not the best idea, but I imagine there are a lot of non-technical Coinbase users who might appreciate it. If you absolutely have to use it, at least make sure you use a strong password.

But yeah I'm not going to go with a hard no, because if you're storing large amounts in Coinbase, you're already doing something wrong anyway lol.

I've read this somewhere not long ago and I laughed. I was expecting Coinbase know better.
I mean, iCloud is known that it has been hacked/exploited. I don't expect anything better from Google cloud.

On the other hand, there are plenty of (smaller?) cloud services that at least offer encrypted storage for all the files.
If done properly, even the file names could be encrypted. You know, in a sea of encrypted data, it's more difficult to find the data you need.
I don't say it's the perfect option (cloud storage never was), but it would have been a way better one than Google and iCloud  :D

Even using their platform will give a huge risk to your funds since you don't have the fully access of the private key, and in addition for this feature.

But people still keep using the platform because its reliable and can be trusted. So to those users that isn't tech savvy regarding to their fund's security can use it as alternative for security/backup but those people who knows the risk will ignore it for sure.

I have read this news on social media and the first thing came to my mind that it was a very bad suggestion.

They are just offering the cloud back-up as an option, you can still use the traditional way.
The title should be "Never use the could storage ...." not all the back-up options.


I hope they have some serious minimum requirements for this password.


I said that for years
Online web wallets are becoming the new banks, exchanges the new libor manipulators, bitpay and others the new visa and mastercard...
And seriously, between Mario Draghi and Craig Wright, I choose Draghi with no hesitation whatsoever.

The person who holds this private key holds ownership. In cases where we use various wallets and exchanges to store our crypto tokens, this private key is with them. We just have access to those tokens via a username/email id and password to that wallet or exchange. This is risky since the ownership is not with us. Most of the times the exchange wallets are on the internet and such wallets are called Hot wallets. Hot wallets pose a maximum security risk since they are connected to the public internet while those stored no a “cold wallet” are not.

best ways to keep cryptocurrencies safe

1. Safety from Phishing Scams
The most common kind of scam is a phishing scam where a hacker sends emails or directs the user somehow to a fake site where the user enters their password. This password is received by the hacker. Be careful of the sites you open, check their security certificate and do not open emails from unknown sources.

2. Keep your device safe
Another common method of hacking is to install some kind of malware on your phone or computer and then steal sensitive data as it is being entered by the user. The device that you use for trading cryptocurrencies should be kept free of any kind of unknown programs and with an anti-virus at all times.

3. Keep private keys with you / Do not store on exchanges
Do not store your crypto tokens on exchanges. They get hacked all the time. Centralized exchanges do not provide you with your private keys. This means the crypto is stored in their wallets – hot or cold. And if they were to get hacked, you lose your tokens.

4. Enable two-factor authentication
5. Avoid public Wi-Fi

Read the complete article here: https://coinswitch.co/news/10-best-ways-to-keep-your-cryptocurrencies-safe-in-2019

I'm sure Google and Apple will be thrilled that Coinbase has just made their Cloud servers a massive target for hackers.

You are placing trust a complex process of encryption, transfer and storage, which I have no doubt will not be open source. You are also trusting Google or Apple to protect their servers from hacking (which they have shown repeatedly they are incapable of doing) and/or not build in a backdoor for law enforcement agencies that ask for it. You are also trusting your own ability to create truly strong and non-brute-forceable passwords, which we know 99% of the population are incapable of doing.

Bad idea all round, but no doubt many newbies will use it anyway.

WTF!!! why would coinbase introduce such stupid feature that puts the users and investors in a voluble situation!!

A good thing by the OP to notify other members about this. I myself won't support storing private keys for bitcoin wallets to be stored in any sort of online cloud service because if during an event of a cloud service getting hacked it would risk all the private keys and the bitcoins as well. According to me, notepads on personal phones and Macs are a way better way to store away private keys.

We don't know their real intention's why they put at risk our keys, once they were hack it absolutely everyone could be possible to be hack as they can easily trace the keys. I'll do back up but I never put it in any online storage, I'll right it in a piece of paper and keep it safe. Even though how secured our keys still we can't guarantee of it, anything will do for online transactions still leaving any traces and could lead for hackers. We just be luck if we are not their target victims.   

Agree this is alarming to every Coinbase users who has huge amount of btc in their account and decided to backup its private key on this cloud storage services this will become the target of many hackers once implemented, why Coinbase is so confident about it? The most secured websites and cloud services today can really easily penetrate by hackers, every private key stored is at risk.    

For a moment if we think this will create an extra level of security as the private key is stored in cloud services but who will grantee that these google drive or iCloud storage will not be hacked. If this is implemented, you will see more hack attempts on these services as people will try to exploit the vulnerability in these services to hack people private keys.

Having a private keys is one of the safety feature of our wallet.
But saving it to cloud storage will never be a good option to do.
Never do that and you will be at risk once happen.

This is really not Secured  measures  they have to put , i we all know internet is not fully secured but using google drive and icloud storage  for private  key backup  will never solve the problem but it will give the hacker opportunity  to start hacking people gmail account and icloud account ..  i think they must  find a great solution for that ..  because this is not advisable ..

I am certainly in agreement with the OP that we shouldn't back up our private keys in any kind of cloud storage no matter how secure and safe they are! However, Coinbase is an old player of crypto market and I think a lot of efforts they have put in before announcing this.

It is essentially a method to recover your wallet if your device gets stolen for any reason. The private keys are encrypted and can only be used in coinbase wallet coupled with your own password.

I would encourage everyone to read the actual blog post of coinbase first and then go through all other third party views.

https://blog.coinbase.com/backup-your-private-keys-on-google-drive-and-icloud-with-coinbase-wallet-3c3f3fdc86dc

Why do we need Coinbase wallet. I can create and use a lot of way. I don't even look at it. I use blockchain website and paper wallet. And I am relife.

Many people will use this feature since a lot of them don't care about decentralization and are only here to make a profit.  Most would rather have the security responsibility be on someone else rather than themselves.

I use coinbase pro to teach myself about trading, so I need to keep a mix of fiat and Bitcoin in their wallet. I run a node for my long term savings, and I'll move any Bitcoin that I want to save out of the coinbase wallets.

I don't use any cloud services - there are enough vulnerabilities in Windows and Google products without increasing them.

why don't save any private key or any sensitive cryptocurrency key on cloud? is it save? as i know that cloud is the safe place, only the owner can access the file, or people that have the shared link can access it. so i think it will a good things when we can save it on cloud storage

the worst part of these services is that they are targeting newbies most of all and that is who they get in the end too. people who are new to bitcoin and its ways but are already familiar with the banking system and centralization of them. so when they see something like Coinbase they are more than happy to use it not knowing what they are really losing by doing that. and they won't know it for years until the shit hits the fans.

NO! It's not!

Google drive has a bad reputation in security, lost of people are getting their accounts hacked every day, and Icloud...common Remeber the 2014 fiasco or "The Fappening" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud_leaks_of_celebrity_photos)?

You should never store passwords or sensitive personal data or material an rely on cloud services.

I think no safe public cloud. But if you dont have any variants, use crypto containers with strong long password.
Good solution for this VeraCrypt. But download only from original site.

If you’re not the sole owner/keeper of your private keys then they are not your bitcoin’s.

We will be get coinbase private key back up feature right but besides they said it is optional feature so don't worry that coming update you can going to check out from tweet https://twitter.com/CoinbaseWallet/status/1095386639105384448
Back Up Phrase in google drive/Cloud back up whatever this make me confused and i think it's something risky so definitely personally i don't do it.

Are you trolling hehehe? It might only be a better way to store your private keys and seed words if your phone and Mac is offline all of the time and will never be connected to the internet.

Also, there are many guides in the internet on how to safely store them. The people might be lazy to do it, however.

I don't want to save my private information in the cloud or any online storing data because it's too risky. I heard and read many people lost their private data because they save it in the cloud. I prefer to use an offline wallet to save my bitcoin, so I don't have to always connect with the internet if the connection is not secure or if I am in the public area. Besides that, I never use Coinbase wallet, and I still prefer blockchain.com than another online wallet.

Glad that I never agreed to clicked that private key backup feature of coinbase. Usually, all my private keys and passwords are saved in my notepad in my phone and i also made it a hard copy for security purposes. There are tons of suspicious features in some exchanges. We have to be well informed about this.

It’s risky I never do such extra precaution nuddy and secondly never store your private keys or back up phrase keys on your iCloud if it’s compromised your investments ain’t save...Always think of security

Lots of people are beginning to boycott Coinbase, I think it’s a good idea. Much of what they’re about goes against what Satoshi intended bitcoin to be.

coinbase is having tough time due to twitter hashtag delete coinbase account is on the market we can expect coin base security bugs issues are coming out

every service has its usages and people really need to start learning these real use cases and stop using them for things they are not designed for. for example Coinbase is a great tool for beginners who have spent their whole lives using banks and online web wallets like Paypal and things like that and at the same time they don't want to learn about bitcoin right off the bat. so using Coinbase for these people is best to get the started and give them a way to both store and buy in the same place in a safe and moderately trusted way.
but then if you spent more time that you could no longer call yourself a "beginner" then you should not continue using Coinbase for anything anymore.

Yep, Sounds like the securest way to back up and store a private key. Just use a third-party app backup tool and store it on the cloud storage. Hardware wallet s would be useless compared to those kinds of invention. lol

not really!
Satoshi meant bitcoin to be a decentralized permissionless currency and that means anybody can use it, and Coinbase is among those "anybody"s. they are offering certain type of services that can have their own usages and as long as people don't have any illusions about what they really are (a centralized account that controls your bitcoin and tracks you and reports your every move) i don't see any problem with their services.

Although Coinbase did support Segwit2x, and supports Bitcoin Cash, which are two of the many socio-political attacks on Bitcoin.

Coinbase is anti-Bitcoin.

To follow on from this, Coinbase have just admitted  (https://cheddar.com/media/coinbase-adds-support-for-ripple-s-xrp-despite-regulatory-uncertainty)the reason they bought Neutrino was because their previous provider was caught selling client data to third parties (skip to 1:53 in the video). They don't say what data was compromised, or how long they've known for, or why they didn't inform their customers at the time.

They are anti-bitcoin, anti-privacy, anti-customer. They only thing they are pro is greed.

I prefer to backup data and private keys manually on paper, save them on a CD or backup on my personal computer. backing up on cloud storage is no guarantee of data leakage. because even if it's connected to the internet I'm worried about my cloud storage data accessing. and there is no guarantee of security. if users prefer to back up on cloud storage I think the thieves or hacker will be easier where they will find it first.

They are trying to follow all major trends that can bring them some good money. No matter how good it is for crypto environment. And imho such services should exist because if BTC won't become resistant to that kind of things then it will fail.
They have always provided a centralized service so backing your keys to google doesn't make things so much worse, at least until they have to refund everything that could be hacked.

My answer is also no when it comes to private key I will not even post here on how I secure it, someone, who knows me spied on me and get to know the location on where I kept my private key, it's a personal matter and all those who will inherit your wealth should know and have access to your private key.

Exactly.

https://blog.coinbase.com/xrp-is-now-available-on-coinbase-d884e33fa8b7

The funny thing is, they violated their own terms and it looks like XRP has paid them huge sum of money, very shady indeed.

https://www.chepicap.com/en/news/7765/did-ripple-pay-coinbase-to-get-xrp-listed-.html

I will never store my private key on any cloud storage, history has proven they are not a safe place to hide your wealth, you can store it if you think your coins is not a store of value, better keep in a hard wallet or a good usb and do not login to often in web wallet.

well I hope this is common knowledge to never back up your private keys anywhere that can be accessed by other people
it being your pc and notepad file or a cloud storage, doesn't matter
you are just asking to get your money stolen , but Coinbase should not have offered such a service first place
never used their services , especially since they do not like their wallets to be used to transfer funds to gambling sites
but this gives me even more reasons not to start to